Improving, Wherever

THE 1969 MANSON MURDERS seem like yesterday, either because the expansion of the universe causes time to accelerate, or, those of us who remember the murders are getting older, and our metabolisms are slowing. Manson stayed crazy to his bitter end, but the women who followed him didn't. Over the course of their imprisoned years, Leslie Van Houton and Patricia Krenwinkel sobered up, came to their senses, and reformed themselves, morally and spiritually. they became model inmates, working in the prison library, and such. Total personal reinvention. They have spent the last several decades as helpful, hard working members of the incarcerated community. So impressively improved were they that they were recently granted parole, after having applied for it and being turned down on numerous occasions. However, California governor Jerry Brown rescinded it. Their crimes were so senseless and brutal that no amount of time served or good behavior displayed justified parole for the Manson family mass murderers, reasoned the governor. jerry Brown is no hard ass let's get tough on crime conservative, but with regard to redemption, he has his limits. And besides, as long as Leslie and Patricia are doing so much good where they are, why move them? Why subject them to a painful and difficult process of readjustment to the outside world, when they can be of far more service to their community confined within prison walls? Prisons, as much as any other places, require the services of good people, particularly volunteers. And who knows? Were they set free, the urge to kill again might conceivably overcome them again. One never knows.